I'd personally rank this game as a high 7, or a low 8, if that makes sense. It's a fantastic game that's getting unrelentingly slammed. The game is thoroughly carried by it's visuals and gameplay / sense of fun (Although there are rough spots). It's a good "comfort food" type of game. Despite the generic backdrop, Bend has definitely done enough to stand out from the crowd if you look beneath the surface. Which for myself, took me a while, as I wrote this game off until I watched a good 2-3 hours of gameplay near release) The bike as a traversal mechanic is fun, scavenging is fun, and the map is fun to "clear". Clearing out ripper camps/infestations feels fun and actually means something, as opposed to just unlocking viewpoints in Assassin's Creed (I'm an AC fan, despite it's problems.). You're making the region safer, whilst also unlocking the zone as a fast travel point...and working your way towards blueprints.
The main criticism for Bend moving forward is to improve on their narrative design. More specifically, cutscene timings, and having more introductory quests at the forefront of story, rather than 10-15 hours into the game.
Secondly, forced playstyles, e.g. pure stealth missions (without real compelling reasons) and lame failstates. I haven't actually encountered issues with those things in particular, since I'm adept and a big fan of stealth games in general. However, I know that for many people it's an acquired taste and rather polarizing. Also, regarding narrative design. They have incredible mocap and VO talent...but they just need to improve their writing consistency and some elements of VO sound design, e.g. Main character yelling to himself in stealth / caves etc, which is jarring. Main character yelling during conversational dialogue, despite standing still and not exerting himself.
The gameplay is fun as well, and it's what carries the game. As someone pointed out above, the aiming deadzones and aiming in general is incredibly rough and needs to be improved upon.
Despite the criticisms, all of which are valid and apparent, this game was a big surprise for me as I felt underwhelemed during it's showings and reveal, to loving it now. It's a fantastic entry to Sony's library of games. The expectation of it being near the levels of Naughty Dog or Santa Monica's work is absurd. Those two studios don't only make good "exclusives", but two of the greatest of all time games in Last of Us, God of War (Reboot). There's a decade plus of learning and cultivating talent that goes into those games/studios.
This is more ranty that I intended, and forgive the grammar, as I'm tired as fuck as I write this.